My first computer Revisited 4-9-2013

by 55 replies
63
Due to a thread that mentioned "old heads" I had to revisit this one.



This was my first computer I owned.
It wasn't the first I used,as my father had a trash80.
Enjoy a stroll down memory lane.
( I know the geeks here will spend a long time on the site).

OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum
#off topic forum
  • I almost bought one of those!
  • This was mine - the Commodore PC10.

    OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum
  • Scary...I wasnt even born when that thing came out. How far we've come!
  • OMG I cant believe mine was on there...UGH I'm aging ... even more scar-ed I remember it!

    OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum
    • [2] replies
    • This is all very scary.

      Here is mine:

      OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

      Funny that now I am a PC gal.

      Mind you, I had that first computer when I was 12 (and it was second-hand).

      Georgetta
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    • I was selling computers when the C64 came out. I moved a couple hundred in the first three weeks. $1200.00 for the computer with an external 5.25 floppy and a cheap desk. I couldn't keep them in stock.

      Only problem was that at least 50% were defective. A couple customers exchanged theirs 4 times before they got one that worked. They were still happy. For whatever reason the C64 was ridiculously popular.
  • Here's mine

    OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum
    • [1] reply
    • I did!


      Lawrh,
      I also had a TI 99/4A. When they closed out TI let tham all go for about $50.That was still a lot of cash at the time, but it had 16K,while my Timex Sinclair,which had cost me $99, only came with 2K, so the TI99/4A was a speed demon!

      After the Ti99/4A, I got one of these!
      http://www.old-computers.com/museum/....asp?st=1&c=57
      • [1] reply
  • My father bought me my first PC 9 years ago when i was 8 years. That was not so good looking and also not very highly featured but still i like it.
  • I got my 99 around 1982 so it cost me $700.00, lucky guy. My cousin had a Coleco Adam but I never played with it. I was jealous of his printer. I didn't buy my first printer until the early 90's.
  • Wow! What a crazy looking old computers in the 80s.
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    • Is that an early portable computer? I have one very similar to that. Maybe even the same model.
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  • heh nice, my first was Commodore 64
  • Wow computer with 2Kb RAM, technology is really on its fast pace and today, if you have that kind of memory on your computer you will surely wait years till a page loads.
    • [1] reply
    • My first computer WAS a Trash 80. I got it because I had a job where I
      taught students on one. So I bought it to have at home in order to do my
      lesson plans and programs on.

      At the time, I thought it was a great computer.
      • [1] reply
  • My next machine was a 486 DX2 66 MHz.
    Ran Windows 3.11 and DOS 6.22.
    Had a 14.4 kbps modem and thought I was the coolest kid in town.

    Loved Netscape 1.1 and 2.0. Sigh.
  • GOD, on my next computer I even forget the brand. ODD, since I sold them. Only actually sold ONE though, to myself. But it was basically an IBM XT. It looked and worked the same way but it had a TURBO switch! IBM computers, and a lot of hardware/software only ran at 4.77Mhz, and this could run at 8Mhz as well. I went to get a 386DX, but they were WAY too expensive. I bought a 286/25Mhz that some "friends", I loaned it to because they INSISTED they would take care of it, ended up supposedly giving away. In real memory mode it was faster than a 386DX anyway. I bought a 386sx/16 for my last employer to PROVE that I was right about the relative speed of a routine I wrote. They were DIRT cheap! The board cost like $330! When I got them a linux 486DX system(EISA, but THAT's ANOTHER story) I got the 386sx. I skipped the 486 series entirely and got a pentium at 75Mhz. I could go on, but YIKES, that is enough computers ALREADY, and I got you up to like 1994.

    Steve
    • [1] reply
    • I had an XT. I don't think it was my first. From new - I didn't have it from new - they were in the region of what £8000-00 would be today. Things change...
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    I owe it all to Sir Clive

    OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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  • Our first "proper PC", way back in around 1994/1995, was a Gateway 2000 "P5-75" (I think), a huge beast with a monster 75 Mhz processor, 8MB ram, 2MB video and a hard drive which - funnily enough - weighing in at 500MB actually had less storage capacity than a CD. This cost my dad the pricely sum of around £1500-2000 GBP, at the time.

    How times change, haha.
  • OMG How fun! CP/M then DOS - there was IBM DOS, and MS-DOS.

    I put off buying one until the C64 came out. Mine even had a cassette tape drive for external memory. I went through 3 of them before I got one that actually worked.

    Then in 1987 I bought a shiny new Kaypro brand XT clone with a 5-1/4 in floppy and a 40 meg (not gig) hard drive! It cost about $4,000. Oh yeah and a dot matrix printer.

    I had arrived.

    Do you remember buying a hard drive and having to do a low level format before you could set a partition and do a regular format?

    :-Don
    • [1] reply
    • Actually, they stopped making disks that didn't require a low level format in like the 60s or 70s. The newer drives are low level formatted at the company and often still have an algorithm to do it. When I started, even in IBM PCs, there was ONE "format". It did the low level AND the high level format, and there were NO partitions!

      Steve
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  • Remember doing low level formats? Ha! I remember when all the computer magazines (like "Byte") called them "Winchester" hard drives, apparently because they were based on having a fixed and a removable disk, each with 30 MB (so "30-30").

    How I longed for that miraculous hard drive. I had two floppies though, which was pretty good in those days. Later, I got a Z-80 and 80 column card for my trusty Apple so that I could run (wait for it) CP/M. See, CP/M was the "serious" and "professional" operating system.

    BTW - I liked CP/M, and the very similar MSDOS - you had complete control and always knew what was going on. Now, I cannot even change file extensions. I guess that is "progress."

    Georgetta
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  • I bought my first computer, a C64 OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum in 1985. It came with the tape drive and it plugged into the tv. I bought a 5-1/4 inch floppy drive for it later on. I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread

    Next was our first PC in 1993. It was a 486sx25 with 4mb ram and a massive 128mb hardrive We've had many more since then.
    • [1] reply
    • Kim, you've started a good thread here -- I also go misty-eyed when the subject of 8-bit machines comes up.

      My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with the rubber keyboard and 48k of memory...

      OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

      When Sinclair brought out the case/keyboard upgrade that turned a Spectrum into a Spectrum plus, I bought one and upgraded. But eventually, I sold it to my uncle and used the money to buy an Acorn Electron...

      OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

      ...and I've still got that machine in a box, sitting on a shelf.

      Anyway, if you're an 8-bit fan, you might want to watch "Micro Men", the BBC dramatisation of the battle between Sinclair and Acorn...
      YouTube - ‪MICRO MEN 0‬‎
      • [1] reply
  • It's mind boggling to think now that my cell phone is more powerful than these older, more expensive computers!
    • [1] reply
    • cpace, your cell phone is much more powerful than these old machines.

      The 8-bit CPUs tended to run at about 1 or 2 MHz which seems puny now -- but it meant that the programmers at the time had to be incredibly clever and innovative to create programs that were great, despite the restrictions of a slow processor and limited memory.
      • [1] reply
  • My first computer was a Tandy Trs It was only a keyboard and I asked the sales person "where is the computer?" and he replied " your holding it" I found out you have to hook it up to a TV and a cassette player for the programs. I mainly used it for handicapping horses.

    It used basic program.

    couple of years later I bought my first 286 which I have up to this day. Of course it went through several motherboards.


    Tom
  • I remember my first computer...

    I was 8 years old in Mr. Watson's computer lab learning how to use the commodore 64. I remember it took 2-3 days to just program a smiley face on the screen - oh, those were the days... all those X's and O's.

    Joshua
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  • Hey !

    Its indeed nice stuff

    awesome pictures taking us down the memory lanes and
    old workstations getting resurrected !!

    Regards!!
  • Good thing I wasn't born that yet. Advent of computers now is amazing as it continue to improve some specifications and features.
  • it's been so long i can't remember my first computer.

    I'm pretty sure it was an apple
  • I had a ZX81...and then a Spectrum. Can't believe I am admitting to this.
  • Eeeeeeeeeeh Pauline, don't be ashamed pet! Back then, the people who owned a Spectrum were getting ready to be part of the future...
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    • Uh, did you look at my first post?
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